P. S. Many thanks to all of you who have recently become new followers. Touches me deeply that you enjoy the poetry I present here. I am presently having internet connection issues but I will visit your blogs and touch in personally as soon as I can.

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For NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo 2016 – Day 23 (to prompt)
A little late maybe but just in time (it’s now 23h30 here in South Africa)
The prompt is a challenge to write a sonnet (see below).

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I came across you on that cold, cold night,
So graceful, bold, yet something so not right.
It seemed as if your heart was on your sleeve,
Yet reaching out, it moved, began to cleave.
Enigma fast and strong yet oh so bright,
You carry in your soul a certain light,
Attracted, like a moth unto a flame,
I walked in close as you called out my name,
Then fell into your trap, the spiders web,
And felt the power within me start to ebb.
I really was a sight then to behold,
I fumbled for myself and tried to hold,
And as I stepped so close within your grasp
The sight I thought your heart was but a clasp.

The Prompt: “Today, I challenge you to write a sonnet. Traditionally, sonnets are 14-line poems, with ten syllables per line, written in iambs (i.e., with a meter in which an unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable, and so on). There are several traditional rhyme schemes, including the Petrarchan, Spenserian, and Shakespearean sonnets. But beyond the strictures of form, sonnets usually pose a question of a sort, explore the ideas raised by the question, and then come to a conclusion. In a way, they are essays written in verse! This means you can write a “sonnet” that doesn’t have meet all of the traditional formal elements, but still functions as a mini-essay of a sort. The main point is to keep your poem tight, not rangy, and to use the shorter confines of the form to fuel the poem’s energy. As Wordsworth put it, in a very formal sonnet indeed, “Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room.” Happy writing!”

The Prompt: “Many years ago, “didactic” poetry was very common – in other words, poetry that explicitly sought to instruct the reader in some kind of skill or knowledge, whether moral, philosophical, or practical. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write the latter kind of “how to” poem – a didactic poem that focuses on a practical skill. Hopefully, you’ll be able to weave the concrete details of the action into a compelling verse. Also, your “practical” skill could be somewhat mythological, imaginary, or funny, like “How to Capture a Mermaid” or “How to Get Your Teenager to Take Out the Garbage When He Is Supposed To.” Happy writing!